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November 13, 2007

A GOOD BREAKFAST STARTS THE DAY WELL

The scene: At one of a limited number of waterholes shrunken by theblazing southern African sun.

The players: A small herd of zebra and a pride of nine lions includinga couple of cubs at foot.

The status: The lions are closer to the waterhole than the zebra butone obviously very thirsty zebra is edging closer to the life-savingwaterhole.

But more of that in a minute...

Of the scores of national parks in eastern and southern Africa thatare home to the Continent's amazing wildlife, Namibia's EtoshaNational Park and the Kalahari National Park in neighbouring SouthAfrica are unique in their hot, arid, desert nature.

They are home to the elephants, lions, antelope and other wildlifecommonly found in other game parks like Kruger in South Africa and thefamed Masai Mara in Kenya, but the desert inhabitants have inheritedminor genetic differences that make them better equipped to exist inthe harsh habitat.

Previously known as South West Africa, Namibia has a chequered historywith involvement of the Portuguese, British and Germans before beingplaced under the administrative control of South Africa by the Leagueof Nations after World War One.

An independent country now, Namibia has a 1400–kilometre coastline butoddly its rainfall is minimal as the cold Benguela Current's watertemperature of about 10C is too cold to allow much evaporation.

This cold current meeting hot, dry winds causes fog to move over thedesert, sustaining life in an otherwise arid area and leaving onlyabout two per cent of the country's soil arable – but making forextraordinarily spectacular scenery of desert moonscapes and deepcanyons.

Hence the stand-off at the Etosha waterhole is a commonly-played-outdrama in wildlife reserves throughout the country.

Unbeknown to our single courageous but parched zebra reaching thewaterhole was not as fraught with danger as his colleagues imagined.

Beside the pride of sluggish lions lazing in the shade was the carcaseof a full grown gemsbok on which the pride had gorged breakfast andwere now, at high noon, resting their swollen bellies in the shade andnot the least bit interested in zebra for lunch.

But it was great theatre for the group of tourists taking in the scenefrom an open-topped Land Rover about 30 metres away and watching thezebra one by one venture to the prized waterhole.

Such drama is enhanced by the proximity within which vehicles cansafely approach wildlife throughout southern Africa. The animals arethoroughly accustomed to being approached by vehicles and have come toregard them as no threat as they go about their daily habits offeeding, fighting and mating.

The animals recognise and do not fear the profile of the vehicles.However, if someone should stand up quickly and break the profile ofthe vehicle or make sudden sharp noises or move quickly in brightlycoloured clothing whilst watching animals at close range (predators,elephants and the feared Cape buffalo in particular,) an afternoon'sgame-viewing has been know to turn sour as frightened animals react inthe only way they know – attack.

But there were no attacks at the Etosha waterhole that autumn day. Oneby one the zebras gradually plucked up courage to edge past the lions,although there were some skittish moments as the odd lion raised asleepy head to sight the passers-by. Another day it could have been sodifferent.

To join an Africa safari, specialist in holidays to the country, BenchInternational has a choice of holiday packages in Namibia ranging fromfour-days to Etosha (costing around $1055) that can be combined withother arrangements in the region, to a 10-might Classic Namibia Safari(costing from $4150) that includes Etosha, the capital Windhoek, theGerman enclave of Swakopmund on the coast and the Namib Desert.

There are direct flights from Australia to Johannesburg for connectionto Windhoek. Details from Bench International, phone 1800-221-451 orvisit